African Centre for Migration and Societyhttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/180492018-05-24T17:53:58Z2018-05-24T17:53:58ZUrban livelihoods and the risk of HIV infection: lived experiences of young migrant women in Havana informal settlements in Windhoek, NamibiaShinana, Eveline Mhttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/157942014-10-27T07:39:57Z2014-10-22T00:00:00ZUrban livelihoods and the risk of HIV infection: lived experiences of young migrant women in Havana informal settlements in Windhoek, Namibia
Shinana, Eveline M
Informal settlements are associated with higher prevalence of HIV. There is empirical evidence that HIV prevalence is higher in the North-Western suburbs (Katutura) of Windhoek which primarily consist of low-income housing and informal settlements. It is reported that a large proportion of young women in these suburbs who are 25 years and younger are HIV positive. This study sought to explore the linkage between urban livelihood strategies and the risk of acquiring HIV among young migrant women (aged 18 to 24) in Havana informal settlement in Katutura in Windhoek, Namibia. The study focuses on the lived experiences of internal young migrant women to explore the linkage between their livelihood strategies and the risks of acquiring HIV. A desk review was undertaken in order to analyse existing documents related to urban livelihoods and HIV from studies that have been conducted in the City of Windhoek. Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions as research instruments were administered to collect primary data. Thematic analysis has been employed to analyse the data to help extract descriptive information concerning experiences of young migrant women in Katutura informal settlements and construct meanings in order to be able to understand how livelihood strategies of young internal migrant women in Havana relate to the risk of acquiring HIV.
The study reveals that young migrant women in Havana informal settlement moved to Windhoek in order to have their livelihoods improved. Based on the data, income; education; employment and housing are some of the social and economic factors found to be affecting the livelihoods of the young migrant women. Furthermore, the study unveils that young migrant women engage in risky sexual behaviours such as low condom use, transactional sex and multiple concurrent partnerships as a strategy to earn livelihoods. Engaging in risky sexual behaviour such as transactional sex enhances the risk of acquiring HIV once they are exposed, as it influences their sexual decision making due to their dependency on men. The study concludes that there is a linkage between urban livelihoods and the risk of HIV infection. Therefore, exclusion of migrant communities from services as well as their limited access to sustainable livelihoods encourages young migrant women to engage in risky sexual behaviour.
The findings of this study do not portray that all young women in Havana informal settlement engage in risky sexual behaviour because young migrant women are a heterogeneous group however, participants who took part in this study are a representative of all young migrant women (aged 18-24) in Havana. Therefore, their risky behaviour can be one of the major factors contributing to high prevalence of HIV among young women in Katutura.
KEY WORDS: Migration, HIV, risky sexual behaviour, urbanisation, livelihoods, informal settlements, urban poverty, Havana, Katutura, Windhoek
2014-10-22T00:00:00ZGiving birth in a foreign land : maternal health-care experiences among Zimbabwean migrant women living in Johannesburg, South Africa.Makandwa, Tacksonhttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/155082014-09-11T06:54:45Z2014-09-11T00:00:00ZGiving birth in a foreign land : maternal health-care experiences among Zimbabwean migrant women living in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Makandwa, Tackson
The republic of South Africa has a “health for all” policy, regardless of nationality and residence status. However, challenges still exist for non-nationals and little is known regarding migrants’ maternal healthcare experiences. This study explores the maternal healthcare experiences of migrant Zimbabwean women living in Johannesburg, South Africa. It focuses on the lived experiences of women aged 18years and above, who engaged with the public healthcare system in Johannesburg during pregnancy and childbirth. A desk review of the literature was undertaken. The theoretical framework in this study draws from three concepts (1) the Social determinants of health framework (WHO 2010), (2) the Access to healthcare framework (McIntyre, Thiede and Brich 2009) and (3) the “three-delays (Nour 2008). Primary data was collected through the use of open-ended semi-structured interviews with a sample of 15 migrant Zimbabwean women who have been in Johannesburg for a minimum of 2 years, and have attended and given birth or are currently attending antenatal care in inner city Johannesburg. Thematic content analysis was used to analyse data since it helps to extract descriptive information concerning the experiences of Zimbabwean women in Johannesburg and to construct meaning in order to understand their perceptions and opinions about the healthcare system in the city. Although the findings indicate that documentation status is not a key issue affecting access to healthcare during pregnancy and delivery, a range of other healthcare barriers were found to dominate, including the nature of their employment, power relations, language, and discrimination(generally) among others. Language was singled out as the major challenge that runs throughout the other barriers. More interestingly the participants raised their desire of returning home or changing facilities within the Public sector or to private institutions in case of any further pregnancy. This study concludes that the bone of contention is on belongingness, deservingness and not being able to speak any local language, that runs through the public health care institutions and this impact on professionalism and discharge of duties.
2014-09-11T00:00:00ZMemory and violence: Displaced Zimbabwean rural communities reliving the memories of the March 2008 political violence.Mvundura, Wellingtonhttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/152812014-08-26T13:03:12Z2014-08-26T00:00:00ZMemory and violence: Displaced Zimbabwean rural communities reliving the memories of the March 2008 political violence.
Mvundura, Wellington
This thesis is premised on the argument that a distinct kind of narrative (‘truth’) about political violence, a narrative of the first-person experience, a narrative that is valued for its power to counter totalising historical narratives, is thought to reside in the subjective experience of each individual. Be that as it may, this study aimed to answer the question: What meanings do rural Zimbabweans who were internally displaced by the March 2008 state-sponsored political violence attach to this violence? In particular, the study investigated these meanings in a context where the victims remain(ed) in close proximity to the perpetrators during and after the violence. It also examined these meanings in an alleged silence by the state and local communities, and how these meanings have shaped the victims’ present socio-political identities. In order to answer the question, in-depth narrative interviews were conducted with purposively selected respondents. The study assumed a qualitative exploratory design which was underpinned by the phenomenological and constructionist theoretical approaches.
It was concluded that the victims’ interpretation of the state-sponsored political violence is negotiated and mediated in the course of interaction. The personal narrative of the memory attains some latent political and redemptive value when it is interpreted in a social context. The meanings of the violence particularly assume a complex moral and ethical plane in a scenario where the perpetrator remains a permanent feature in the victim’s physical and social space, without any recourse. The complexity is imminent as the victim has to contend with the socio-psychological effects of the daily direct interface with their unpunished aggressor especially due to the communal nature of rural life.
It was also concluded that the 2008 state-sponsored violence was increasingly interpreted as unfinished business by the victims. More so, it was also understood to be synonymous and complicit with silence at the communal and national level. Thus, the silence was synonymous with adaptation to power relations, cultural censorship, and liminality. In terms of identity, the victims suffer an identity crisis. They have developed personalities that have arguably, failed to internalise a sense of self as trusting and trustworthy. Last, the identification of the violence as unfinished business has also led to the reaffirmation of the victims’ spiritual identities as they have invoked bewitchment to avenge the death of their loved ones and in the process try to reconnect with them spiritually by invoking their spirits to seek revenge.
2014-08-26T00:00:00ZSeeking goals in the urban estuary : how a personal migrant subjectivity is reified into productive strategies and generative social effects.O'Keefe, Peterhttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/150382014-07-28T05:53:58Z2014-07-28T00:00:00ZSeeking goals in the urban estuary : how a personal migrant subjectivity is reified into productive strategies and generative social effects.
O'Keefe, Peter
Using a micro-level frame of analysis, and working from in-depth interviews in Johannesburg's migrant-rich ‘urban estuaries,’ this research report considers participants’ personal, subjective, understanding of their own migrant-ness. The paper argues that theirs is a migrant subjectivity linked to the praxis of goal seeking, rather than the achievement of belonging. The goal seeking subjectivity is reified into pragmatic social strategies of network building, trust, and opportunity creation that undermine the concepts of generalized trust, communal social capital, and the host/migrant dichotomy. Personal subjectivies are rendered social. Denizens fill the social space with presentations and assessments of ‘mutual beneficence,’ and seek out demographically ambivalent networks of commonality.
2014-07-28T00:00:00Z